EB-5 Sneak Peek Map for 2018

TEA SNEAK PEEK for Census Tract Unemployment Rate: What you want to know for EB-5 Project TEA Certification in 2018

Last year we introduced the EB-5 TEA Sneak Peek Map to help our clients that wanted to know how the upcoming annual data change might affect their project. This year, as always, EB-5 teams have the same question – so we updated the Sneak Peek map to make it relevant for this year as well.

Once the Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”) releases its official, finalized data for the entire 2017 calendar year, most states will begin the annual process of updating the data that they use to determine the TEA eligibility of your projects. The BLS typically releases this final data in mid-April – therefore, the states’ revision processes typically take place between April and June.

If your EB-5 team plans to continue having immigrant investors file petitions after May/June of this year, you will likely want to make sure that your project location will still qualify as a TEA.

New Unemployment Rate Thresholds

The national unemployment rate for 2017 was 4.4%. Therefore, the new threshold for determining high unemployment TEAs will be 150% of that rate – which is 6.6%.

Watch our video to see the best ways to use the Sneak Peek map for 2018

The census tract unemployment rates shown in our Sneak Peek map are based on a combination of finalized and preliminary data for calendar year 2017. While we don’t anticipate much fluctuation between these preliminary rates and the final rates, these calculations are meant to approximate what the census tract rates are likely to be once the data is finalized by the BLS.

The information presented in the Sneak Peek map is intended to approximate the data that most states will be using for TEA designations beginning in April/May of 2018. It is based on census-share methodology utilizing finalized data from the American Community Survey, 2012-2016 and the county-level data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that is available for 2017 (January – December 2017*).

*December ‘17 is preliminary. January ‘17 through November ‘17 is finalized